Best of Warlord

One first needs to understand who and what Warlord is and was. Success is sometimes a matter of sheer luck. Courageous enough not to participate in the booming L.A. glam-influenced scene, Warlord instead pioneered what would later be known as early US-Power Metal, or US European-Styled metal, influenced by the early NWoBHM, as opposed to Kiss. In that respect, they're closer to other cult classics as Cirith Ungol, Crimson Glory, or Canada-based Black Knight. Classical artists such as Vivaldi and Paganini have often been cited as influences, along with Scorpions, Rush, etc. There was much talent, there was great musicianship; lyrics were beautiful and well put together, for a great deal they were inspired by Bill Tsamis background and interest in theology, which you may or may not like, but you have to respect as any other subject or source of inspiration. What failed then? Low budget and lack of promotion. Legend has it that they had to borrow the fog machine from label-mates Slayer.

All in all, this release attempts to summarise Warlord's 80's career. A career that was considered to be very promising but failed to breakthrough for the reasons aforementioned. The proof of the pudding is that 3 out of 13 tracks were included in highly influential compilations. And the band was just starting. Now let's go to the tracks.

The compilation starts rather slow with an eventually mid-paced atmospheric track, "Deliver us", with religious-themed lyrics. If it was ok for Mercyful Fate and many others, why can't it be ok for Warlord? Winter tears is a beautiful mid-paced-almost-ballad with great guitar and vocal melodies, while lyrics focus on the loss of the loved one.

Now, "Child of the damned". Boring? No, this is where the action starts, it’s a fast-paced track with double-bass drums. Let's bear in mind this is 1983. This track was covered by HammerFall in 1997, listening to the original recording puts HammerFall to shame as it sounds slower and spineless. Warlord's original sounds more inspired and powerful, specially the double-bass drums, which sound like a buffalo stampede. The lyrics reference the famous quote from John Milton's "Paradise Lost" whereby Satan claims it's "Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven", as an open question. It therefore proves we're not dealing with a brainless Mötley Crüe-like band with empty lyrics, we're instead in front of highly cultured and educated songwriters.

"Penny for a poorman" and "Black mass" are again mid-paced-almost-ballad and atmospheric respectively. "Lucifer's hammer" is another cult classic included in one of the Metal Massacre compilations. Good enough to be there but "suffering from inconsistency" to quote the previous reviewer.? Dual guitars and lyrics focussing on nuclear weapons, "Lucifer's hammer" being a suitable name for a Cold War era nuclear missile. Great vocal melodies and feeling here.

The album goes on to another Metal Massacre classic, "Mrs. Victoria", a tale of witchery with very accomplished lyrics and guitars, while "Aliens", both lyrically and musically, sounds threatening.

"Lost and lonely days" and "Soliloquy" again set the mood down and deal with love and emotions, while "1984" is a melodic instrumental track.

To sum up, this album is recommended for people who enjoy highly inspired and highly talented 1980's European Metal (uppercase Metal), with some progressive flavour, just in the right dose: creative composition, good performing and accomplished lyrics.

This album is, in a word, inconsistent. There are some really great moments, and then some that just don't make much sense.

The first song, "Deliver Us from Evil" is nice and melodic, though it does have a certain sense of restraint. You keep expecting the song to burst out into some thrash riffs halfway through, and it never quite does. Keeping that in mind, it's still pretty damn good, and probably the best song on here.

"Winter Tears" is also pretty decent, though the vocals are just a bit over-the-top. The singer has power, but not much control (apparently, to fix that problem, they brought in Joacim Cans on the new album who has the exact opposite problem). Then, "Child of the Damned", which apparently is a classic, though it's kinda boring. It's got a nice main riff, but really the song is just a slight bit too long.

"Penny for a Poor Man" has insane amounts of dynamic content. It's soft - it's loud again - okay, it's softer again... and it appears to be kind of unintentional, at least not to that effect.

Then, "Black Mass" and "Lucifer's Hammer" - both decent but overlong - sometimes the guitar solos just go on and on, directionlessly, making not much sense. Same with "Mrs Victoria", which also has a bit of a gratuitous intro - it's just a bit too cheesy at times, even though the general idea for the song is pretty damn good.

"Aliens" - a bit repetitive, which seems to be the problem with a lot of the songs here - there really isn't 58 minutes of material on this album. Some of the songs are repeated from a few different versions, others just kinda drag on.

"Lost and Lonely Days" is pretty nice - another great song, that manages to get its shit together. Then, "Lucifer's Hammer", "Soliloquoy" and "MCMLXXXIV" - again, too much random guitar work that doesn't quite go anywhere.

The main complaints - the vocals are at times too loud in the mix. The only place where the vocals make sense is the first song, on the rest they do tend to be too loud - also the lead guitar in reference to the riffs is sometimes overwhelming, especially when the solos are as random-sounding as they are.